Mystery Symptoms: Why It’s Not Just Allergies

I'm a complete expert with this now.

It's a rare day, and I'm not talking about my coaching clients, where I don't spot a histamine or hypermobility issue in random conversations with people.

The first thing I always used to think when someone mentioned histamine was the story of the family member who won't let the kids get a cat because they come out in hives, the work colleague who brings in their Clarityn, tissues, nasal spray and eyedrops every May while the rest of us are enjoying the smell of freshly cut grass, or the friend coming back from tropical South East Asia covered in saucer sized welts after the mosquitoes have had a full on 12 course tasting menu on them.

There have been times when mosquitoes have had a proper chomp on me.

Aged 4, staying in a quaint overnight chalet style hotel in France, my parents woke up to find my eyelids swollen shut from the bites all over my face.

Then there were summers when hayfever really took hold, with the 5pm itchy eyes as the pollen settled for the day, and only a cold shower and copious eyedrops would relieve it.

But there were also times when tropical insects had no interest in me at all and my hayfever went. I was told I'd just grown out of it.

Knowing what I now know about histamine and MCAS, mast cell activation syndrome (and it's inevitability with hypermobile bodies) , I can piece the puzzle together perfectly.

Twenty years ago, a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome had me overhaul the way I was living. Not just what I was eating day to day, but what I allowed into my environment.

Reverse osmosis drinking water, non toxic cleaning products, VOC free organic paint, natural materials, no chemical perfumes, no LED lightbulbs and no plastic food storage.

And guess what?

Not only did it make a big difference to my energy, my hay fever went too.

And I haven't had it since.

But histamine issues are about so much more than allergies.

Histamine in the brain can look like anxiety, racing thoughts, rumination and brain fog. And if you're really unlucky, it will show up at its peak during those 4am wakings, when histamine likes to dump.

Histamine in the heart can create an erratic heartbeat, nervous palpitations and POTS type symptoms.

Histamine in the gut can be bloating, acid reflux, loose stools and IBS type symptoms.

Histamine on the skin can be hives, eczema, rashes and that tiny scratch that feels disproportionately painful.

Histamine in the uterus is often part of the endometriosis picture, and endometriosis can of course be found in other parts of the body too.

Histamine in the bladder can look like repeated and painful interstitial cystitis, where antibiotics do nothing because infection isn't the root issue.

And histamine systemically is where we can see anaphylaxis.

The environment was one thing, and for some of us it really does matter.

What we eat, breathe, spray, sleep in, clean with and slather on ourselves can all add to the histamine bucket.

But the biggest shift for me was in my psychological health.

Not in a “positive thinking and deep breathing until you want to throw the cushion across the room” kind of way.

More in a “my nervous system finally put its feet up, sipped on a cocktail, listened to the gentle waves and enjoyed the breeze” kind of way.

Which, honestly, right now I could do with in actual real life as I sit at my desk in the UK daytime heat of 34 degrees, a fan pointed directly at me on full blast and that tight feeling in my toes that tells me my feet are swollen .

Because when the system stops living on high alert and like everything is urgent, dangerous, personal or forever, the body struggles too.

Not by poking around in trauma or doing nervous system admin as a full time job. But by understanding something so simple and kind about how the mind works, that the whole system can begin to settle. Stress is the BIGGEST driver of health issues.

But when a sensitive, bendy, histaminey body begins to settle, it can be extraordinary what else starts to soften and becomes less reactive.

So if you recognise yourself in any of this, the itchy eyes, the weird symptoms, the 4am wakings, the racing mind, the body that seems to have read the medical textbook and thought “yes please, I’ll have one of everything”, then this is exactly the territory I work in.